


Don't you love us?

by Madame_Xela



Series: The Brothers Ri drabbles [3]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Brother Feels, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Nori is gone a lot and Ori starts asking questions, Ori just wants Nori to be happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-13
Updated: 2013-02-13
Packaged: 2017-11-29 04:11:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/682627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madame_Xela/pseuds/Madame_Xela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was after a three month ‘trip’ that Nori had heard the most heart breaking sentence come out of his baby brother’s mouth.</p>
<p>“Don’t you love us anymore?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't you love us?

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, I have absolutely no excuse for this.

The first time Nori was gone overnight, Dori punched a hole in the wall from worry. Little Ori was too young to understand what was going on, all he knew was No-No wasn’t there so there was no lullabies at bedtime. When Nori arrived home at around noon the next day, the dwarfling had clamped around his brother’s legs and refused to let go.

“Now look what you’ve done, Nori! You made Ori cry!”

“I…Dori make him stop, yer good at that!”

“Oh no mister! It’s _your_ fault he’s upset so _you_ calm him down!”

Nori’s overnight disappearances became routine. It was nothing serious at first, once a week at most. But then once a week turned into every fifth day, and every fifth day turned into every third day until Nori was gone for more than a night. Soon it was two days, a week, two weeks, a month, then longer.

It was after a three month ‘trip’ that Nori had heard the most heart breaking sentence come out of his baby brother’s mouth.

“Don’t you love us anymore?”

Nori had been so shocked that he forgot how to breathe. Why would Ori ever…?

Stooping down so he was eye level with the nineteen year old, Nori placed his large hands on Ori’s shoulders. “Ori, why…why would ye _ever_ think that?”

The little shoulders shrugged. “You’re always gone for a _really_ long time, an’ when you get home you sleep an’ go to the stinky pub an’ then you an’ Dori yell at each other an’ you leave again. You never have time to play with me anymore and-!”

“-Ori, how do you know that Dori and I yell at each other?”

Ori flushed in shame. “I hear it. I-I know I’m a’posed to be in bed but you get really loud an’ I’m ‘fraid that someone got hurt so I…sneak down the hall an’ listen.” Ori ducked his head to hide from his brother. He knew that eavesdropping was wrong, Dori had told him that on many occasions, but he wanted to make sure that Dori and Nori were okay! They get really- _really_ loud sometimes, and sometimes they wind up breaking things.

“Oh Ori I-”

“-Is it my fault you leave?” The question was so quiet, yet to Nori it was louder than a herd of Oliphaunts. How on Middle Earth did Ori come up with such a conclusion?! Nori adored his little brother (Dori was important too)! It wasn’t that Nori _wanted_ to leave, but he _had_ to. Everything Nori did, **_everything_** , was to keep little Ori and that idiot Dori _safe_. Safe from what, well it was better that they didn’t know. “I-I know I bug you to play with me or read to me a lot b-but it’s ‘cause I miss you Nori! If I’m too ‘noying, I’ll…I’ll leave you alone. I j-just want to spend time with you before you go away again. But-”

A small sniff, wet and utterly heartbroken, tugged at something inside Nori. He felt hurt and ashamed and so _angry_ at himself. There was absolutely no excuse for him to make his brother this upset. “Ori stop it!” The older dwarf’s hands fell off of Ori’s shoulders as Ori flinched. If Nori had been angry with himself before, he _hated_ himself now. Why couldn’t he do anything right? Everything he did just seemed to anger Dori and upset Ori.

“Do you have a ‘nother family?”

“What?”

“’Cause it’s okay if you do. Long as they make you happy. Then I’m…I’m” To Nori’s horror, his brother burst into tears. “I d-don’t _want_ you to go, Nori. B-but if you’re not happy an’ th-they make you happy then you…you go be happy. D-Dori will be mad, but he’ll also be really sad an’ so will I. We’ll miss you so-” Nori couldn’t take any more of this. He had been through many fights, felt several different kinds of pain but this hurt more than all of that combined. Reaching out, he pulled his brother into a hug and held him as tight as he could without hurting the dwarfling. With his face half buried in in reddish hair and half buried in the warm cardigan, Nori let his tears fall.

“N-Nori! Don’t cry! You’re a’posed to be _happy_! Not sad!”

A bitter chuckle erupted from the older dwarf’s throat. Leaning back, Nori looked at his baby brother. Ori had tears running down his red cheeks, and snot dribbling out of his nose. He didn’t look at Nori. Instead he focused his attention to his chubby hands, wringing them together.

“Ori, kid ye listen to me and ye listen good. I love ye very-very much, and as much as Dori nags me, I…love him too. Yer my family-my _only_ family. Why would I want another family? The two of ye are all I need.”

“B-but-!”

“-Ori, what did Dori tell ye about interrupting? Good lad. Now…I know I’m gone a lot, but I’m going to let ye in on a little secret.” Curious, Ori tilted his head. Nori grinned and lowered his voice to a whisper. “Every day I’m gone I wish I was back home, here with ye and Dori.”

Confusion and then delight swept over Ori’s features. “ _Really_?!” Nori nodded.

“Absolutely. I-” Whatever he was about to say had been cut off by a mouthful of hair.

“So you do love us! Does that mean you’re gonna stay?!” Oh Ori…

“Eventually I’ll have to leave again, but I promise I’ll come back to ye.”

“Pinky promise?”

Nori raised a brow. “Pinky promise? What’s that?”

“Kíli says that if you make a pinky promise you can’t never ever break it.”

“Alright, then I pinky promise ye-” Ori giggled.

“Not like that Nori!” A tiny, slightly sticky pinky finger wrapped around one of his own. Oh, so that’s where the name came from… “Now you make your promise!”

Nori repeated his promise. When their fingers unhooked, Nori hefted his brother into his lap (he was far too light for his age. Wasn’t Dori feeding him?) and wrapped his arms around the dwarfling. “I know I fight with Dori a lot. He and I have never really been able to see eye to eye. We never wanted ye to hear us though.”

“I don’t like it when you an’ Dori fight.” It was so quiet, Nori had almost missed it.

The older dwarf let out a soft laugh. “Trust me, I don’t like it either kid. Dori’s my big brother. He’s a pain in the arse for sure (“You said a bad word Nori!”)-oh hush…don’t tell Dori-he may be a pain in the arse, but that doesn’t mean that I want to fight with him. Now _ye_ , my little dwarf, I am so, so sorry that I made ye feel like I didn’t want to spend time with ye. I have absolutely no excuse and I am the worse dwarf-worst _brother_ ever.”

“Nu-uh! You’re the coolest, bestest big brother ever! You’re even cooler than Fíli!”

How was it that Nori was blessed with such an adorable and amazing little brother? This kid had so much faith in him, even though Nori was gone for long periods of time and made him feel like he didn’t love him. “Oh kid, ye don’t deserve to have me as a brother. Yer too good. Don’t try and correct me.” Nori sighed. “If ye ever feel like I’m ignorin’ ye or if ye just want to spend time with me, all ye have to do is tell me, okay? Everything comes second to my favorite little brother (“I’m you’re _only_ little brother, silly!”) that doesn’t mean you aren’t my favorite! Tell ye what, go pick out yer favorite book, I’ll go make us some lunch and we’ll go spend the day at the lake.”

“Yay!” Ori scrambled out of his lap and ran off to his room as fast as his little legs could take him. This wouldn’t magically make things better between the two of them, but it was a start. He would do whatever it took to make things right between him and his brothers, starting with Ori (because once things were better with Ori, it would be easier to patch things up with Dori).

He walked off to the kitchen to make their lunch: a few sandwiches and an entire basket of chips. Perhaps he should leave Dori a note so the older dwarf did have a heart attack when he came home…that would be rather counterproductive.

*

Hours later, just after Dori had finished setting dinner on their small table, Nori kicked the door open. He was grinning from ear to ear up at little Ori who was perched on his shoulders. The dwarfling was singing an off-key song about little thieving critters that tried to take his chips and the heroic Nori that had kept them all away.

“I was wondering when you two would get back.” Dori said with just a slight hint of accusation in his tone.

“Dori! Dori! Nori took me too the lake today an’ he read to me an’ we drew _lots_ pictures an’ threw rocks in the water-Nori got his a lot farer than I did-an’ then we had lunch! Nori made me chips! A whole basket of ‘em! An’ a bunch of squirrelies came and tried to eat them, but Nori chased them off!” Somewhere during his little speech, Nori had swung him off of his shoulders and handed him off to Dori who had taken him with a small smile.

“Well, it sounds like you and Nori had an exciting day! I bet you’re both starving!” He placed Ori in his chair (the one with several books stacked on it so he could reach the tabletop), giving him his dinner. Nori was already sitting down and shoveling food in his mouth. On any other day Dori would have boxed his ears at the bad manners but for today he would let it slide. Today was the first day in a very long time that he had seen both of his brothers this happy. Whatever had happened while Dori was away, he was extremely grateful for it.

For the first time in a very long time, the Brothers Ri managed to go an entire evening without one argument. It was calm and peaceful. As little Ori lay bundled in furs between his brothers, he listened to them play songs on their flutes with a grin. When the flutes had been put away his older brothers put a few new braids in his hair. Ori tried to stay awake, he really did, but with both of his brother’s hands carding through his hair, he couldn’t help but slip away to dream land.

“Love you Dori, Love you Nori.” He managed to whisper before he fell asleep.

“We love you.” One of them said. “Very, very much.” And there was no doubt that that was true. 


End file.
